


Double planet

by AndromedaSmith



Series: Starstruck: Karamel One-Shots [4]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Canon Compliant, F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26283412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndromedaSmith/pseuds/AndromedaSmith
Summary: Kara and Mon-El are on their way back to Earth from Argo with the Harun-El. There’s a lot to talk about.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Mon-El
Series: Starstruck: Karamel One-Shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1852360
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25





	Double planet

**Author's Note:**

> Set between 3x20 and 3x21.

Red and blue capes swung behind them as they walked away from Alura and the other Kryptonians. Kara’s jaw was clenched and her shoulders tight as she held in her roiling emotions. 

Mon-El was a strong, calming presence beside her. He could have tried to distract her by discussing the trip back to Earth or the upcoming battle with Reign; she was relieved that he chose to let her listen to her own thoughts. Her right hand itched to reach out and take his left, both for her own comfort and to show him how much she appreciated his companionship. But his hand wasn’t hers to hold any more. _He_ wasn’t hers any more.

She looked over at him. Was that the same twitch from his hand? He noticed her gaze and shifted his elsewhere.

Kara stole one last look over her shoulder as they climbed into J’onn’s spaceship. She took a deep breath, trying to hold onto the scent of dar-essa as the canopy sealed. She placed the bag with the Harun-El and the box from her mother carefully at her feet and looked up at Mon-El. He was busying himself plotting their course.

As the ship rose into Argo’s sky, she exhaled. She glanced back at the city and her shoulders lowered, just a little bit.

Concern showed on his face as he looked over at her. “You okay?”

She nodded, not ready to speak.

“There are some new gravitic anomalies between here and Earth, so the return trip is going to take a little longer. About five hours,” he said. “You’ve been through a lot,” he continued. “Do you want to try and get some rest?”

The lump in Kara’s throat had finally subsided enough for her to speak. “I think I’m too wound up for that just yet.”

She gazed out the window at the stars. They stretched into shimmering streaks as the ship’s FTL drive kicked in.

Kara remembered what Mon-El had said, that night in her loft. _So many feelings_. Worry about stopping Reign, shock at finding Argo, joy in feeling her mother’s arms around her again, relief from convincing the High Council, sadness at leaving again so soon. And Mon-El: even if she wasn’t thinking about their past every waking minute like she had a few months ago, there was still so much to feel when she looked at him.

Five hours. She made up her mind not to dwell on all the feelings right now. Glancing around inside the ship, her eyes fell on Mon-El’s right hand. “Thanks again for lending me your Legion ring. That worked out well.”

“You’re welcome. I have a few good ideas these days,” he said. 

“So you do.” She raised her hand to bump fists with him. He looked surprised then raised his own. They both grinned.

Mon-El was quiet for a moment. An unreadable expression flashed across his face as his left hand moved to his collar. “Speaking of lending, I should have asked, months ago: would you like your necklace back?”

“It’s done a pretty good job of keeping you safe all this time. I think you’d better hang on to it. I think my mom would approve,” she replied.

“Thanks. I promise I’ll take good care of it,” he responded. _That_ expression she could read: it was relief, pure and simple. “You did good today,” he continued. “Your mom’s not the only one who’s proud of you.”

“Thanks. Coming from you, what you’ve become… that means a lot.”

“So… finding Argo, seeing your mom, then having to leave again. That’s huge,” he said, softly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She swallowed. “I don’t think I’m ready to, yet.”

“We’re probably heading right into battle with Reign when we get back. Might help to deal with some of your emotions now.”

_Deal with them?_ How exactly was she supposed to deal with finding her long-lost home while saving her current one and trying to stop falling back in love with her married ex? Kara felt a surge of anger, which quickly dissipated into exasperation.

“You know, this older-and-wiser thing you’ve got going can be annoying sometimes.”

“Technically, I was always older,” he reminded her. He looked like he was trying to keep a straight face.

“Are you admitting that you weren’t always wiser?” she shot back.

“I think that’s pretty clear,” he chuckled. “But I tried to catch up.”

“I think you more than caught up,” she smiled. 

“Thanks. That means a lot,” he repeated her words.

Casting around for a less serious topic, she remembered his words before she had headed into the council chamber. “Hey, you never told me you knew Kryptonian!” she accused.

He ran his hand through his hair, looking a bit embarrassed. “It ... never came up?” he replied.“But I have had … never mind. Spoilers.”

“Where? How did you learn it? Your accent is kind of weird, I have to say.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Well, as your mom reminded us, I used to be the prince of Daxam. Learning the language of our… rivals was part of my training, in case it was needed for diplomacy. Somehow I don’t think today’s circumstances ever occurred to anyone as a possibility,” he said, drily.

Kara laughed at that. “No kidding.” She paused for a moment, then asked quietly, “Do you miss Daxam? Would you go back, if that were possible?”

He sighed heavily. “When I first got here, I mean in this time, before, I was so relieved to be away from that life, and my parents, that I never really missed it. And then they did come for me, and I had good reasons not to go with them.” She smiled sadly at that. “In the future — like Imra told you, at first I was focused on getting back here. And then, once we started the Legion, and ... so much happened … there wasn’t a lot of time to think about thousand-year-old history.” 

He scratched his chin meditatively. “If Daxam were still there, would I go back? If they needed a leader, maybe. I wasn’t the person to do that before, but I could be now. But I made a commitment to the Legion, too…” he trailed off and faced away from her.

Without her super-hearing, Kara strained to catch his next words. “That’s not the choice I have to make,” he muttered. The choice? What was the choice he had to make?

As she opened her mouth to ask, he quickly changed the subject.

“You know, our paths are surprisingly parallel,” he said.

_Parallel? But that means they don’t intersect.._ She shoved that thought aside and only asked, “how so?”

“Your parents sent you away from Argo to keep you safe. You never expected to come back, but you did. You sent me away from Earth to keep me safe. I never thought I’d make it back, but here we are. Kara, I—”

He was looking into her eyes and suddenly, she was in that field, with him. On Krypton, with her parents. The same pod. Out of nowhere, despair hit Kara like a tidal wave. Her eyes closed and tears began to flow. “Mon-El, I am so sorry I sent you away. I could have done something else… sent you to Earth-1, found another way. I thought I’d killed you. I nearly did,” she sobbed. 

He looked shocked but quickly recovered. His voice was low, soothing. “Hey. It’s okay. No more apologies, remember?”

She sniffed and looked up at him through wet lashes. 

“And there’s nothing to apologize for. You saved me, and not just from the lead. Never doubt that.” He set his jaw, looking like he wanted to say something else.

Another wave of sadness rose up inside Kara. She continued in a choked voice, “and now you’re back here, and you’re risking everything to help us... I don’t want to lose you again. The future needs you.” Even the prospect of saying goodbye to him again was suddenly too much. The tears restarted and she couldn’t hold them back.

He leaned down to catch her eyes. “Kara, listen to me. Risking ourselves is what we do. It’s how we protect people. You’ve got a great team. You’re not going to lose anyone to Reign.”

“But ... but I just got my mom back, and we had to leave… I feel like I already lost her to Reign.”

He continued to hold her gaze. “She’s still there. You haven’t lost her. After we deal with Reign—and we will defeat her—you could go back to Argo.”

“I have people, a whole planet to protect. I can’t do that on Argo.”

“You can’t be Kara Zor-El on Earth, either.”

She sighed. “We do what we have to do, but it comes at a price. I think we know that better than most. Even most heroes.” 

“Yeah. We do,” he breathed. His eyes were hooded, his brow furrowed. “You know, I might not be the only one who’s gotten wiser.” She flashed him a tiny, sad smile. 

Kara’s breath hitched. “You were right about this being exhausting. Being Kara Danvers and Supergirl, fighting the Worldkillers,” _fighting my feelings about you,_ “Colville and his followers, and now Argo.. sometimes it’s hard to be the beacon of hope for everyone else when I feel like I can barely keep it together myself.”

“It’s hard. But you’re so strong. You do keep it together. Every time,” he said, quiet respect — and something else? — in his voice. 

Those two words struck a nerve and Kara’s face crumpled again. This time her tears were soundless. She slumped forward, elbows on her thighs, head in her hands. 

Then Mon-El’s hand was on her back, stroking it gently. “It’s okay.” _That touch._ She’d missed it so much. And he’d be going back to the future and she would lose it, along with the rest of him and their awkwardly-regrowing friendship, again. It was all just too much and she was just about all cried out.

His hand slid from her back as she sat up. Somehow she got her breathing under control. She gave him a watery smile and closed her eyes, leaning back and sighing. The last thing she expected was for exhaustion to take over as sleep suddenly claimed her. The world faded away as he whispered her name.

* * *

Mon-El watched Kara sleep. The puffiness around her eyes and the blotches on her cheeks slowly faded, and her expression turned peaceful. She was always beautiful, but watching her like this … it was hard to resist the urge to reach out, hold her hand, stroke her cheek, touch her hair. But she wasn’t his to hold any more. And he wasn’t hers. Even if his heart was.

He had been so close to just opening his heart, telling her how he felt. And then her floodgates had opened up — no surprise, given all that had happened. He couldn’t lay anything more on her, not now. There would be time, after Reign, to wrestle with his heart again. But for now he could take comfort in this moment, in the presence of her strength, her spirit.

* * *

Kara woke to Mon-El’s hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her. She opened her eyes to see him gazing at her. Was she still dreaming? Because in his grey eyes she saw more than just the fondness he’d spoken of to her mother. It seemed like he was looking at her the way he used to, a lifetime (only a year?) ago.

His eyes dimmed but the concern in his gaze lingered as he pulled his hand back. _That touch..._

“Hey. Glad you got some rest.” His voice was quiet, calm. “We’re almost there.”

She stretched her arms overhead. “Thanks. I do feel better. Darn it, you were right again.”

Was that a _smirk_ on his face?

Kara refused to give him any more satisfaction. She looked forward at the streaking stars changing color from while to yellow, then orange, then red.

“Coming up on the solar system; sub-light speed in three.. two.. one.”

Earth’s yellow sun lit their faces. Kara could feel her strength grow as her powers began to return. In front of them, the Earth and Moon hung together in the night like two tiny gems, sparkling and delicate.

“So beautiful. So fragile,” Kara sighed.

“You should see what the Moon is like in the thirty-first century. A hundred million people live there.”

“That’s amazing. I understand about the timeline and I know you can’t say much about the future but I do wish you could tell me about what you’ve seen and done.”

“Yeah. There’s been some pretty amazing stuff. When I first got there, I can’t tell you how many times I thought ‘can’t wait to tell Kara about this.’ And Winn. Man, that guy would love the future.”

The ship rounded the Moon as Kara got her first glimpse of it from space.

“Do you remember the first time you showed me the Moon, after Lena’s party?”

“I do,” she smiled. “That’s a long time ago, for you, though.” 

“I told you I would never forget you, Kara. I meant that.” It sounded like his throat was closing up a little. Hers was too.

She turned her gaze back to the Earth, rapidly growing in the front viewport. 

“All those people. I guess we better get down there and save them.”

“You got it, Supergirl,” he grinned at her. This time she didn’t correct him, just grinned back.

**Author's Note:**

> A double planet is one where the centre of gravity of the two masses is located outside either body. The Earth/Moon system is not quite a double planet although it’s pretty close.
> 
> I thought this was an interesting Karamel metaphor. It’s also a nod to the parallels in their paths that Mon-El points out, that continue with the choices they both make.


End file.
